Construction to begin on schools in Riverside South, Findlay Creek

Riverside South and Findlay Creek received some positive news last week as the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has announced that construction will begin this summer on schools in both communities.

The new public elementary school in Findlay Creek will also include daycare spaces. The only public elementary school in the rapidly growing community is already over capacity. The school is scheduled to be open for September 2024, meaning relief from the overcrowding issue will be coming after the next school year.

The Riverside South public high school is scheduled to open in September 2025. This school is greatly needed in Riverside South, as for years, public school board high school students have been bussed throughout the region including Merivale High School in Nepean, and even as far away as South Carleton High School in Richmond.

Being a product of the public school system, I am proud to have pushed for the approval of these badly needed schools as the communities and neighbourhoods in the Carleton riding just east of Barrhaven continue to grow.

I have placed a high priority on getting schools built in the riding since I was first elected as MPP for Carleton in 2018. I have fought for the construction or expansion of nine schools in Carleton. We are far from done, and I will continue to advocate for more schools as the communities in the Carleton riding continue to grow and flourish.

Congratulations 872 RCACS Saturday, May 27 was a special day for the 872 Kiwanis-Kanata Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron.

The 872 RCACS’ annual ceremonial review took place Saturday afternoon in Stittsville. It was an opportunity for the squadron to demonstrate some of the things they have learned over the past year in front of their families, friends, and members of the community. goldie continues on page 3 goldie continues from page 2

There are many members of the 872 RCACS who live in the Carleton riding. I, along with many others, are proud of the dedication and hard work that they have put in over the past year.

Ontario Removing Unfair Work Barriers for Skilled Newcomers

The Ontario government is leading the country with changes to help internationally trained immigrants work in the fields they’ve studied in. After introducing historic legislation that banned regulated professions from requiring Canadian work experience in more than 30 occupations, Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) are the first association to remove it from their application criteria. If passed, this has the potential to help thousands of otherwise-qualified professionals pursue their dreams over the coming years, all while maintaining Ontario’s world-class licens- ing and exam requirements.

Roughly 300,000 jobs continue to go unfilled across the province every day, including thousands in engineering, costing billions in lost productivity. At the same time, studies have shown only a quarter of internationally trained immigrants in Ontario work in the regulated professions they trained for. Currently, even if a newcomer has the skills and technical ability to pass their profession’s licensing exams, they may still be barred from registering in their profession without Canadian work experience – even if that work occurs in an unrelated sector, such as retail.

Ontario is the first province in Canada to ban unfair or discriminatory Canadian work experience requirements to help newcomers work in the professions they trained for. In December 2023, all unfair requirements for Canadian experience will be automatically voided unless an exemption is granted by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development for public health and safety.

Quick Facts

- Introduced as part of Working for Workers Act, 2021, Ontario was the first province in Canada to ban use of discriminatory Canadian Experience Requirements in occupations under the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006 (FARPACTA).

- In 2019, Engineers were the fourth largest regulated profession in Ontario with 85,649 members and had the second largest number of internationally trained members, with 24,258 people registered in the profession.

- In 2020, the median employment income for a Civil Engineer in Ontario was $96,000.

- If passed, as part of Working for Workers Act, 2023, the FARPACTA would help ensure that regulated professions assess competency in a way that is non-discriminatory, ensuring newcomers are able to continue their careers in Ontario.

- Ontario invests over $90M annually in services that help newcomers learn English or French, settle, access training, and find jobs.

Paramedics Honoured

The Ontario government is honouring paramedics from across the province with the inaugural Ontario Medal for Paramedic Bravery. The medal is given to paramedics who have demonstrated great courage risking their lives to save the lives of others.

The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones, presented medals to 10 paramedics in a ceremony at Queen’s Park. This is the first year paramedics in Ontario have been honoured by the province with a medal for their actions.

Recipients are recognized for their individual acts of outstanding bravery, including moving a crashed plane to save passengers inside, diving to the bottom of Lake Ontario to rescue a drowned man, grabbing hold of a suicidal man on a highway ledge, swimming an unconscious cliff diver to safety, saving other first responders during a gas line explosion, and rescuing workers from a collapsed building.

While these medal recipients have been selected for their acts of extraordinary selflessness, each paramedic in Ontario has a profound impact on the health and safety of people across the province.

Quick Facts

- Paramedic Services

Week is celebrated across Canada from May 21 to 27, 2023. The theme for Paramedic Services Week 2023 is “Diversity in Paramedicine – The Patient. The Provider. The Profession”. This theme recognizes the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion for patients, providers, and the profession of paramedicine.

- Since its inaugura- tion in 2015, 74 paramedics have received the Ontario Award for Paramedic Bravery. This year marks the first year the award has been elevated to a provincial honour medal as the newly named Ontario Medal for Paramedic Bravery.

- Any Ontario paramedic is eligible to receive the medal for an act of exceptional courage that has occurred within the last 24 months. The honour can be bestowed posthumously.

- There are over 10,500 paramedics currently employed in Ontario, the largest group of paramedics in Canada.

Office Notice:

My office is open Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm. If you require assistance on any matter, please contact me at any time. My staff and I will be happy to assist. Even if it’s not a provincial issue, I’ll make sure to connect you with the proper office.

Goldie

Your voice at Queen’s Park blackburn continues from page 1

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Premier Doug Ford publicly asked the OCDSB to back down on their policy. Eventually, Education Minister Steven Lecce ordered the board to allow the police officer to take part in the career day, wearing a uniform.

“In my opinion, that was extremely embarrassing for the board. We lost a lot of public confidence,” Blackburn said.

Blackburn has updated the motion that will be presented to the Committee of the Whole June 13.

“WHEREAS the health and safety of our students and staff is a top priority without which student achievement and well-being cannot be realized; and

“WHEREAS school safety can be enhanced by a partnership with the police service which supports the safety and security of school communities and proactively assists students who may benefit from positive police involvement;

“THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: THAT the Director of Education engage in discussions with the Ottawa Police Service to establish standards of practice that allow for police support to schools respecting the safety and security of students and staff.”

“This has nothing to do with politics,” Blackburn said. “This has everything to do with the safety of the students, and with creating a safe learning environment.”

Blackburn said there was a lot of public misunderstanding about the SRO program and how it operated.

“First of all, I want to be very clear that this is not a motion to re-instate the SRO program,” she said. “However, in my opinion, it is important that we have a relationship at some level with the police. When the officers were in the schools for the program, they developed relationships. They were able to work with the principals and administration. They were also able to develop relationships with the students, particularly the students who were at risk. Sure, not every police officer was perfect, but if you take a cross-section of any group in society and you are going to find people who are not perfect.”

While officers familiar with the schools, the students and their school culture were a mere text away with the SRO program, staff now has no other option but to call 9-1-1 when there is an issue at their school. One retired police officer who only agreed to speak to the Independent if he could be unnamed, said that the problems at the schools increased after the cancellation of the program.

“Violence at the schools was up the first year after the cancellation of the program,” he said. “There was an increase in bullying and fights, there were more drug deals taking place out in the open. The students who are problematic have become more brazen. It’s not just at the high schools. It’s at the elementary schools as well. There was a highly publicized incident at Longfields Davidson Heights Secondary School where a student was stabbed. What people don’t realize is that there were several situations like that around the city. Those incidents never made it to the media, so nobody knows about them.”

The officer also referenced Vimy Ridge Public School in Findlay Creek, which has had to have public meetings and forums about the bullying problem at the school and how children are being beaten up in unsupervised areas between portable classrooms during recess and lunch hour breaks.

Blackburn said that what she wants out of her motion is for a dialogue to begin between the Board and its Director of Education, and the Ottawa Police Service.

“Whether we have the SRO program or not, the police are still coming to the schools,” she said. “But the difference is, when there is a problem, do you want someone who is known at the school and has a relationship with the students responding, or do you want to call 9-1-1 and have to wait, and then whatever officer happens to be in the area on a beat shows up at the school and may never have been in the building in their lives?”

The board’s meeting will be streamed live at ocdsb. ca and then posted to the OCDSB YouTube channel.